Strong season for boys team ends with tough tourney loss

Wednesday

Carlos Bonilla believes his return to the sideline as coach of the Reynoldsburg High School boys soccer team after a one-year hiatus was a success.

Carlos Bonilla believes his return to the sideline as coach of the Reynoldsburg High School boys soccer team after a one-year hiatus was a success.

The Raiders finished 8-4-7 overall after a 3-2 overtime loss to Marysville in a Division I district semifinal Oct. 22 after defeating Westerville North 2-1 on Oct. 15 and 11th-seeded Delaware 2-1 in a shootout Oct. 18 in the first two rounds.

Reynoldsburg went 2-1-4 in the OCC-Ohio Division to place fifth behind Gahanna (5-0-2), Pickerington North (5-1-1), Grove City (4-2-1) and Pickerington Central (4-2-1) and ahead of Lancaster (2-4-1), Groveport (1-6) and Newark (0-6-1).

The Raiders were 7-8-2 overall and 1-4 in the OCC-Buckeye last season under Dave Winter, losing their last four games and going 0-5-1 in their last six.

"(The season) exceeded my expectations because you're only as good as your last game and this team finished last year with losses, and we had so many first-year varsity starters this year," said Bonilla, who had compiled an 84-63-19 record and guided the Raiders to OCC championships in 2001 and 2002 in his first coaching stint from 1998-2006. "We lost only three games in the regular season and we were competitive in every game. The credit goes to the players."

Jordan led the team with 10 goals and Broehm was second with six. Fee and Gustavson, who had eight shutouts, were three-year varsity players.

"You don't replace a Gustavson, a Fee, a Roteff, a Jordan, a (Matt) Taylor and a Broehm," Bonilla said. "You just hope the younger kids were paying attention, learned from them and will try to emulate them.

"I've known (the seniors) a long time and coached them in youth leagues. I wanted to win really bad for them."

The Raiders led Marysville 2-0 in the second half only to watch the Monarchs score two goals in a span of 47 seconds in the final seven minutes to force overtime. Marysville scored the winner with 7:32 remaining in the first 15-minute overtime.

"That stings," Bonilla said. "With such a large senior class, I think it will be hard for them for awhile. But I want the younger guys to remember the feeling and use it as a motivator to have the best season they can have next year."

•The girls team finished 12-4-3 overall after a 2-0 loss to top-seeded Upper Arlington in a Division I district semifinal Oct. 21. The 11th-seeded Raiders defeated Olentangy 1-0 on Oct. 14 and Big Walnut 1-0 on Oct. 16 in the first two rounds.

They went 4-2-1 in the OCC-Ohio to place fourth behind North (6-1), Gahanna (5-1-1) and Grove City (5-1-1) and ahead of Central (3-3-1), Lancaster (2-5), Newark (1-6) and Groveport (0-7).

Twelve victories is the program's highest win total since 2003, when the Raiders finished 14-4.

"I think (the season) exceeded my expectations," coach Mark Wise said. "I'm always cautiously optimistic and so I was hoping that we'd finish a little better than .500. This is the second-best season (in the eight years) I've been coaching in terms of wins and losses."

This season also marked the first time since 1999 that Reynoldsburg advanced past the second round of the tournament.

"We met two of three goals," Wise said, referring to getting past the second round of the tournament and finishing with a winning record.

The third goal was to win the OCC-Ohio championship. That didn't happen, but the Raiders handed Pickerington North its only loss in league play 1-0 on Sept. 9.

"To beat Pickerington North -- that was a special night," Wise said. "We never thought we'd do that. Nobody would have predicted that."

Reynoldsburg will lose seniors Jessica Caldwell, Ashley Everts, Melanie Marx, Ashley Ross and Rachel Timblin from the midfield. Also lost will be forwards Bethany Roberts and Abby Timblin, as well as defenders Leah Sasfy and Patty Stuthard. Roberts (16) and Marx (7) were second and third on the team in goals.

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